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James Weiss, M.D.
Advisory Board Chair
Dr. Jim Weiss recently retired from practicing nephrology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of his sons was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome as a young teenager. Both of his children have another rare disorder, Gaucher disease. Jim is a cofounder of a western Pennsylvania organization focused on care for underserved communities.
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Marinos Dalakas, M.D.
Dr. Marinos Dalakas is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neuromuscular Division at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He is Professor of Neurology and Chief of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory in the Department of Pathophysiology at the University of Athens Medical School in Athens, where he has been Emeritus Professor since 2016. Dr. Dalakas is an appointed member in various scientific societies and is a member of the American Neurological Association, the American Academy of Neurology, the European Neurological Society, and the International Society of Greek Neuroscientists, among other professional organizations.
Dr. Dalakas has published widely. His areas of research are broad and include neuroimmunology, neurovirology, immunogenetics, and immunotherapies in neurologic diseases. He has focused on immunopathogenesis of autoimmune neuropathies and myopathies, stiff-person syndrome and autoimmune hyper-excitability CNS disorders, and other autoimmune neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis, myelitis and amyloidosis. He has conducted several controlled clinical trials including the first with intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIg) in autoimmune neurology.
He completed a 3-year fellowship training in neuromuscular diseases at the Medical Neurology Branch of the NINCDS in Bethesda, Maryland and an additional 5-year training in Neuroimmunology/Neurovirology at NINDS. He subsequently served as Chief of the Neuromuscular Diseases Section of the NINDS, NIH, a position he held for 20 years before joining Thomas Jefferson University.
Dr. Dalakas joined The SPSRF Medical Advisory Board in 2022.
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Duarte Machado, M.D.
Dr. Duarte Machado is a board certified neurologist with subspecialty training in Movement Disorders. He is currently Director of Program Excellence and Recognition at the Hartford Healthcare Ayer Neuroscience Institute’s Chase Family Movement Disorders Center in Cheshire, CT. Dr. Machado has conducted numerous clinical research projects. He has participated in and helped to organize the Northeast Stiff Person Syndrome Awareness Annual Conference since 2016.
Dr. Machado is a 2001 graduate of Trinity College with a B.A. in Neuroscience. He is a 2005 graduate of the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine. He completed neurology residency and fellowship training at the Yale School of Medicine, where he was also chosen to be Chief Resident. Dr. Machado was subsequently recruited to join the faculty at Yale, and also completed the Medical Education Fellowship Program at Yale.
Dr. Machado joined the SPSRF Medical Advisory Board in 2023.
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Andrew McKeon, M.B., B.Ch., M.D.
Originally from Dublin, Andrew McKeon, M.B., B.Ch., M.D. obtained his medical degree from University College Dublin (2000), undertook internal medicine and neurology training in Ireland, and completed as a fellow in movement disorders and then autoimmune neurology at Mayo Clinic. He became a consultant at Mayo Clinic in 2009, as a joint appointee in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. He is co-director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory. He is a professor of neurology and associate professor of laboratory medicine and pathology in Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He is certified by the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology. Dr. McKeon’s research and clinical interests pertain to the evaluation and treatment of patients with autoimmune CNS disorders.
Dr. McKeon joined The SPSRF Medical Advisory Board in 2022.
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Scott Newsome, D.O.
Dr. Scott Newsome specializes in the care of patients with neuroimmunological and neuroinflammatory disorders of the central nervous system with a special interest in evaluating and treating patients with Stiff Person Syndrome. Dr. Newsome works within the division of Neuroimmunology and Neuroinfectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital and is currently the Director of the Johns Hopkins Neurosciences Consultation and Infusion Center, the Stiff Person Syndrome Center, and the Co-Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Experimental Therapeutics Program.
Dr. Newsome received his medical degree with honors from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and then completed his internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology at Albany Medical Center where he was awarded the Golden Apple Outstanding Resident Teaching Award and selected to be chief resident. He subsequently completed a fellowship in neuroimmunology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital with the support of a Sylvia Lawry Physician Fellowship from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Dr. Newsome joined The SPSRF Medical Advisory Board in 2022.
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Isharat Yusuf, Ph.D.
Isharat (Ish) Yusuf is an immunologist with over 14 years of biotech/pharma experience. Ish is currently an Executive Director and Head of Immunology at Architect Therapeutics. Before joining Architect, she was at Gossamer Bio where she held positions with increasing scope and responsibility, including the Senior Director of Immunology. Before joining Gossamer Bio, she held research scientist positions at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR, La Jolla) and at MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Ish completed her post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Shane Crotty at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, and her B.Sc. from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
As an immunologist, Ish is interested in developing therapeutics for diseases of the immune system with a focus on autoimmune disorders. At MedImmune, she worked on Inebilizumab, which was approved in 2020 for treating neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), an autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system. This experience led Ish to have a specific interest in neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. At Gossamer Bio she was the research lead for an IND-enabled therapeutic for Multiple Sclerosis. Given her interest in this space, Ish is looking forward to contributing to the research and scientific strategy of the Stiff Person Syndrome Research Foundation.
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Amanda L. Piquet, MD, FAAN
Dr. Amanda Piquet is an Associate Professor, the Director of the Autoimmune Neurology Program, and Associate Director of the Neuroinfectious Disease and Autoimmune Neurology Fellowship at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center (CU-AMC). She graduated from Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine, completed her neurology residency at Harvard’s Neurology Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and completed a fellowship in Autoimmune Neurology & Neuroimmunology at the University of Utah. Her main clinical and research interests focus on central nervous system autoimmunity and other neuroinflammatory disorders, including Stiff Person Syndrome. Dr. Piquet sees patients in the outpatient autoimmune/neuroimmunology clinics at the University of Colorado Hospital and in the inpatient neurology and consult services as a neurohospitalist.
As a foundational component of the Autoimmune Neurology Research Program at CU-AMC, she has created the Autoimmune, Paraneoplastic, and Inflammatory Neurological Disease Patient Registry, capturing clinical and epidemiological data, patient-reported outcomes, and biorepository specimens (blood and cerebrospinal fluid) for biomarker exploration. The goals of this project include characterizing patterns of neuroinflammation and central nervous system injury with the goal of further understanding the pathophysiology of these neuroinflammatory disorders and facilitating the development of future treatment trials by identifying biomarkers that correlate to clinical outcomes reflecting treatment response.